KNOW THYSELF – THE BODY/MIND CONNECTION

“If you want to know the condition of your mind in the past,
Examine your body now.
If you want to know what your body will look like in the future,
Examine your mind now.”Deepak Chopra

Physics has proven the Mind is not limited to the brain and indeed does dwell in every cell of our body. And these cells are constantly dying and being reborn at a rate of 5,700,000 per second! Every word, every thought, every feeling, every emotion is constantly creating chemical changes in our tissues and organs, which is recorded and reflected in our physical bodies. Just think every six months, we have a totally new body!

Does that mean changing our thoughts creates a transformation within the body? Yes it does! Deepak Chopra explains that the immune system literally listens to a conversation you have with your self….every second of it. He goes on to say that “our immune cells are ‘conscious little beings’; they have their own ideas, notions, intellect and emotions”. Wow! That’s amazing! He also mentions that the immune system and the brain use many of the same molecules to talk to each other…..so the cells of our immune system are constantly filtering through our brain, listening to everything we say and think. Deepak Chopra also tells us our body houses the greatest pharmaceutical company in the world. Our brain can make its own morphine and that our emotions release chemicals called endorphins, which gives us a sense of euphoria and pain relief. So information is constantly flowing and sending messages to every part of your body

Also, Anne Futternman, PhD, Margaret Kemeny, PhD, David Shapiro PhD, and John Fahey, MD, did a study using actors. http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/reprint/56/6/499.pdf They wanted to see if the temporary ‘emotional’ states of actors would change their immune system. It makes me wonder about Heath Ledger (we will miss him) and the deep dark character he was working on. He died from an overdose of over-the-counter pharmacy drugs!

Getting back to the actors study, it was noticed, as an example, when an actor felt intense sad feelings, his immune system would increase natural killer cells into his blood stream. Natural Killer Cells are ‘good’ cells by the way – they help to fight off disease. What we need is these cells to be in tip top shape. When they’re not, they can’t tell good from bad and start attacking healthy cells as well. This is called an auto-immune disorder.

Martin Brofman, M.D., Caroline Myss, Mona Liza Scultz, M.D., Carol Ritberger. M.D., and many, many more are making it known that stress related illnesses are at their highest when we lose control of our lives, feel depressed, lonely, as well as feeling helpless and hopeless. Stress can depress and compromise our immune system and can contribute to many different illnesses, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and heart disease.

The immune system consists of the lymph glands and nodes, the thymus gland, tonsils, spleen and white blood cells. And all these parts carry on a communication with our endocrine and central nervous system.

Pain is caused by a lack of proper circulation or a blockage in the flow of energy. Environmental factors such as wind, cold, dampness and heat can also impede the flow of blood throughout the body. This can result in pain, numbness, heaviness, stiffness and swelling of the joints and muscles. Stress and tension slows down our circulation too and becomes an inflammation in certain areas of the body.

Stress doesn’t come from what we do, but more from how we react to what we do. Indeed, stress and tension can literally tie our body and mind in knots. In the juggling demands of everyday life, we continually, push, hurry, run and do. Our bodies are in a constant stance of flight/flight, an emergency response linked to primitive man. As tension escalates our muscles tighten, our pulse quickens, digestion is slowed and our cholesterol rises. Stress holds our body hostage and when it tightly grips us it’s nearly impossible to disentangle ourselves from it. The more stress we hold inside the more our vitality our color is dimmed.

Do you think we become stressed because we don’t feel safe enough to just be who we are? We usually express our feelings and experiences through our body posture and movements. When we’re happy we smile, dance, sing, laugh, etc. But in fear our body either becomes immobilized or tense, or quickly and actively runs away.

Also, we have a tendency to keep secrets about ourselves from others. We are afraid that if we’re open and honest with others, they won’t like us, may take advantage of us, criticize or reject us. So when we are in the presence of other people, we tighten up; we think what we should or shouldn’t say; our body’s stay in that fight/flight response constantly which affects our muscles and whole body structure. When we feel we don’t need our defensive wall anymore, our bodies relax. But with FM the muscles don’t relax and don’t return to their normal state. The brain continues sending stress hormones and enzymes creating an imbalance within our whole system. And we feel pain!

The mind/body connection is about turning inward and seeing yourself rather than seeing others and the world around you. It’s about preparing yourself for reflecting or mirroring on the story of your life. This section hopefully will act as catalyst to move you into deeper levels of inner awareness. It is only a beginning point to give you your own direction. It has to be up to you to understand and become aware of gathering your own data, understanding it and applying it to your life. Once you learn how to use one the tools, the doors to your world will open a little wider. We begin to see real connections between the physical and spiritual world and discover deeper meanings of everything that happens to us. Life becomes more interesting day by day.

Our minds are so complex. We all know what a brain looks like but the mind is well beyond anything we’ve learned. We’ve been conditioned to think in terms of straight lines, squares and boxes. If you look at nature, you won’t find any straight lines, squares or boxes. If you look into a microscope, you see cells and microorganisms that aren’t square but round, spherical and in spirals. Our whole universe is a living, breathing energy circle that continually spirals its effects around us and through us.

Awareness is a tremendous healing power that transforms not only parts of you that aren’t well but also parts of you that are well.

How do we create a place that feels safe enough to let down our defenses and share more of who we really are. The same walls and defenses that protect us can also isolate us, especially if we have no one or no where that feels safe enough to let them down.

When we deny or cut off from a feeling or an emotion, it remains imprisoned within our physical or mental body where it cannot move. It becomes distressed and then manifests in our personal lives as disease, misfortune, or some other form of adversity.

In Chinese medicine (acupuncture) the body is seen as circuits of energy. The mind and emotions are closely related to health and dis-ease. When we look at the seven emotions – joy, anger, melancholy, brooding, sorrow fear and shock – an excess of joy can damage the heart, anger can damage the liver, melancholy the kidneys, brooding and sorrow the spleen and fear and shock to the kidney.

Added Note: A friend of mine emailed me after posting this, regarding problems with her Large Intestine. I didn’t see the synchronicity in her timeful question, until I emailed her back. (my friend hasn’t seen my blog yet but she knows the meridians and chakras are a great interest of mine)

I mentioned to her that the Large Intestine’s purpose is to PROTECT. It represents our need to be protected as well as protecting those we love. I suddenly saw a correlation with the large intestine, and ‘walls of defensiveness’ and the inability to Let Go and BE! I saw intestional imbalance could be related to FM and CFS and other illnesses as well.

The large intestine is the eliminator of thoughts and emotions as well as eliminating waste products from the body. But when we are in a protective mode, we also contrict and congest the elimination process. We hold on tightly and possessively to emotions and feelings that need to be released.

In fact, Jenny my spinning spider friend, suffers from Migraines and commented on this blog. Writing her back, I inititally saw an imbalance with the Gall Bladder/Liver Meridan, and the element WOOD. But now I’m looking at the Lung/Large Intestine and the element AIR too. Something I’d like to investigate and understand and share with you later.

In the next segment are some techniques to focus your energy in the present moment and become aware of an illness in your body. We will focus on feeling your bodily sensations. Note that thinking is not feeling. We are not to analyze, think or label.

Although we are focusing on Fibromayalgia and Chronic Fatigue, these tools can be used for any illness. Some of the exercises are what I taught when I worked at a metaphysical center. Remembering and writing is helping me as well, as I too search for body wholeness. I’ve noticed when my fibromayalgia pain is acute, I tend to withdraw from the pain, my thoughts and memories become weak as well as my power of concentration. Sometimes I want to escape my body, sometimes all I want to do is sleep!

“Man is not imprisoned by habit. Great changes in him can be wrought by crisis – once that crisis can be recognized and understood.”Norman Cousins

In my eyes Norman Cousins was a true Chiron. Norman Cousins used his own ill-health experiences to teach us about the connections of our emotions, health and bodies. When he became ill with a rare disease, he discovered and wrote the best selling book, Anatomy of an Illness. In 1980 he suffered a severe heart attack and turned his own recovery into a book called The Healing Heart: Antidotes to Panic and Helplessness.

Interesting note: The planet Gemini challenges us to increase our awareness and potentially connect us to our immediate environment or neighborhood. I tried to find Norman Cousins natal chart but I couldn’t find it. I did type in his date of birth at astro.com and discoverd his Venus was 10 degrees 34′ 36″ in Gemini. The Sabian Symbol for this placement is Gemini 11, NEWLY OPENED LANDS OFFER THE PIONEER NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPERIENCE – in his illnesses, he discovered and opened an unfamiliar door to his true potential.

Which planet effects your Gemini? What house? Which Sabian Symbol? You can find out by going to http://www.astro.com/ and typing in your date and time of birth. While you’re there why don’t you check out your Chiron.